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Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Bourbon Biscuits (using Whole Wheat flour)

Christmas is around the corner means cookies and cakes. Baking requires accuracy and that is not one of my strengths. So the next best thing is to keep away from baking. But with cookies appearing everywhere - in blogs, in newspaper food supplements, in cooking books distributed by grocery stores, I got into the mood to try some of course after being asked everyday for cookies to be baked helps too. I settled on these Bourbon cookies which were in the Washington Post Christmas Cookies supplement - had a very few ingredients and I had all of them on hand.

If you think I accomplished this cookie baking session without any drama you are mistaken. The recipe called for a stick of butter. You'd think that would be an easy proposition. Nope! While the regular stick of butter is 8 tbsp, the fat stick of butter that I had was 16 tbsp. :(. Should have known this but I blissfully proceeded with the recipe which resulted in a sticky mess which could not be rolled. I assumed that the recipe writer had made some mistakes and decided to stick the dough in the fridge to harden a little bit. It is butter after all - it will harden after some time in the fridge certainly! While that was happening I decided to recheck the wrapper to count the number of tbsps in my big stick! Duh! of course it was lot more than a normal American stick of butter.

Nothing to worry about though! Ended up with a few more biscuits than planned but then again when is that a bad thing? I will give you the original recipe because my measurements were reverse calculated to accommodate the excess butter. These were the crispiest, freshest and tastiest cookies we have ever tasted. If you are procrastinating you should give these a try for sure. Be assured if I can bake them you can too.

DH2 had bought cookie cutters and wanted to use those. Who said bourbon cookies can't be any shape you want it to be? The dough is perfectly conducive to making shapes. I did not have super fine sugar to dust on the cookies which would have made them look pretty and festive. I was not going to postpone cooking making for that, then it will never get done. One other thing, I did not have the namesake bourbon at home either. A dash of Vanilla would work just fine

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Now on to the recipe in pictures first,

Combine the butter and sugar and beat with a mixer for about 3 minutes till light and fluffy.

Combine cocoa powder, flour and salt and add to the creamed butter. Beat on slow speed or use a spatula to mix to form a evenly chocolate dough.

Place the dough on to a slightly dusted with flour board and with a rolling pin roll it to about 1/8 inch thickness more or less. Cut into rectangular strips. Use a bamboo skewer to make a line of 3 holes. Dust with sugar.

Transfer to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper as you are cutting them, and bake in a preheated 350F oven for 5-15 minutes till the cookies are just firm.

Cool the biscuits on wire racks. Prepare the filling. Apply filling for half the number of cookies and make sandwiches by placing the other half on top.

Note:I used salted butter so skipped the salt. I used white whole wheat flour, feel free to use any flour of choice.

Method

Preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Take the butter and sugar and beat with an electric beater or standing mixer till it nice and fluffy.

Combine together flour, cocoa powder and whisk them together so it is well mixed.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and in a lower speed combine to form a stiff dough. I used a hand held electric mixture for beating the butter so used a spatula to mix the butter and the flour to form a evenly chocolate dough.

Dust a cutting board or a work surface and transfer the dough and using a rolling pin gently roll out the dough so it is even thickness of about 1/8 inches or so. You should be able to make 24 rectangles of even size of about 1 1/4 by 2 inches. Using a skewer make holes in a line on the cut cookie.

Transfer the cut cookies to the cookie sheet and dust with the super fine sugar or the same turbinado sugar.

Bring the excess dough back together and roll and cut as many pieces.

Bake for 5-15 minutes till it becomes firm. Transfer to a wire rack for cooling.

For the Filling

Combine the butter and confectioner's sugar in a standing mixer bowl or using an electric beater. Beat till nice and fluffy.

Add in the cocoa powder, milk and bourbon if using and in a slow speed combine them to make a smooth filling.

Fix the cookies

Turn over half the number of the baked, cooled cookies and apply the filling. Place the other half on top.